Protecting Tenten
by fantasmefantastic
Summary: Woah. Hold the phone. My Neji? And suddenly, it hits me. I am in love with Hyuga Neji. Yeah, I'm kinda slow on the whole emotions thing, but give me a break, all right?


Here's a little NejiTen fic. This would be my first NejiTen ONLY fanfic, just to warn you all, 'cause Neji might be a little OOC, even though it's gonna be from Tenten's point of view.

I do not own Naruto or the song.

* * *

Fighting. It's a shinobi's life. 

Duh, we're freakin' ninja here, people!

I'm a shinobi, a kunoichi, actually. And for all you block brains out there, kunoichi means female ninja. I fight with weapons, summoning them from scrolls and hurling them with deadly accuracy at the enemy. Yeah, I should probably learn the meaning of humility, but deal with it until I do.

My name is Tenten, and I've got the basic brown hair, up in a twin set of buns. And basic brown eyes, though Ino says my eyes are like how a bar of chocolate looks when a girl's got her period.

But we won't talk about that right now. Now, I'm kinda in the middle of a fight.

Not a serious one, just a bunch of idiotic bandits who think they can beat the crap out of us, us being Team Gui. We were heading home after a guard mission to the Wave Country when these idiots decided to come and attack us.

But, back to the fight...

I whirled away from the deadly kunai. Tipped with posion. Damn.

But, I'm a pretty good kunoichi; I dodged it.

Me, being the Weapons Mistress of Konoha, whipped out my trusty scroll and sent a fatal rain of kunai down upon the enemy, each hitting their target.

Suddenly, a yell of victory could be heard.

I turned to see a rather nasty looking man, about the age of _freaking thrity_, come flying at me.

I move to dodge, but there seems to be a gooey, sticky substance sticking me to where I am.

_**You, you're always there for me**_

Suddenly, a figure of white, dark gray, and brown hair whirls in front of me.

I watch, absently struggling to break free when it's pointless, as my teammate easily knocks the guys out and tosses him on top of the pile of the other unconcious bandits.

_**When I need you most**_

"Thanks, Neji," I say, as he tugs me free of the sticky substance. I lift my feet in disgust and wrinkle my nose at the peculiar scent. "What the hell _is_ this stuff?"

"Some sort of trapping substance," Neji answers. I glare at him.

"Thank you for that _stunning_ observation, Captain Obvious," I snap. Neji shrugs, then we sepearte and continue to knock out the offending bandits.

_**Day and night you're by my side**_

"Tenten," calls a voice softly.

"No!" I shriek, thrasing violently, my wool blanket twisting around my feet. "NO! LEAVE HER ALONE!"

"Tenten, wake up!" the voice shouts.

"_NO!" _I scream, bolting up, sweat pouring down my face. I inhale the sweet air of the forest, slowly letting my pulse calm. I feel hands on my shoulders and turn my head to see Neji kneeling beside me, a look of worry on his normally blank, impassive face.

"Are you all right?" he questions as I gulp some water from my canteen.

"Yes, I'm fine," I reply, slowly. Neji obviously doesn't believe me.

"Did you dream of your mother again?" he asks. I raise my eyes from the ground and look into his pale Byakugan ones.

"Isn't that kind of obvious?"

Neji nodded, solemnly. "Are you all right, now?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks, again, Neji."

"Of course" is his reply.

A man of long speeches, right?

_**Protecting me**_

Leaping from tree to tree, dead even with Neji, I'm thinking about my mother.

Yeah, my mom.

Last year, on her own misson, her team was robbed and killed. When the ANBU found her and her team, and the medic-nins examinined them, it was obvious that my mother had been murdered after being forcibly raped.

And I keep having nightmares. Every time we're attacked by bandits, I have nightmares. And every time Neji always wakes me up and gives me water, and helps me go back to sleep.

I hate feeling so helpless. I hate feeling so...weak.

And now I'm just totally pissed at everything. But mostly myself.

_**When I feel like crashing down**_

"Tenten?" Neji asks, drawing me from my thoughts.

"Hm?" I grunt, showing him that I'm listening and that I'm still alive.

"You can't blame yourself, you know," he says. Yeah, whatever.

"Hn." Mwa ha ha ha, I'm stealing the Clan Prodigies favorite word. Actually, it's more like...noise.

"Why are you so quiet? You always get quiet after a night of having that nightmare."

"Because, Neji..." I begin slowly. "Just because I hate feeling like something else is controlling me. And it makes me feel so weak, like I can't protect myself."

Neji nods as he listens to me.

"Well, that's understandable, Tenten, but you can't stay in control of every aspect of your life. You shouldn't go into minor depression over such a small thing. You shouldn't turn into Queen Cold herself, just because you feel weak."

I raise an eyebrow. "So says King Cold himself."

Neji smirks at me, then leaps ahead to converse with Lee for a few minutes, leaving me to my thoughts.

_**You seem to be around**_

Why is he suddenly around every time I'm in trouble of any friggin' kind?

I mean, seriously. Hyuga Neji is King Cold himself, as I said earlier, but whenever I'm in trouble or something it's always like he just _appears._

_**There you are**_

And I am not kidding her, folks. The only time I've ever fought without him jumping in to save me (even though I am usually perfectly able of defending myself, thank you!) is at the Chuunin Exams, both times, and when we were seperated during the rescue of the Fifth Kazekage, Gaara.

_**You're never far 'cause**_

He is literally_ always there,_ right in front of me One time, he let five points of a mace pierce his shoulder instead of mine.

He didn't tell me why he did that, when I was stuck healing him the next day while Gai and Lee went off in search of herbs to heal our youthful teammate.

Yeah, I just rolled my eyes several _thousand_ times. You get pretty good at eye-rolling when your paired with Gai and Lee.

_**Whenever, where ever baby**_

_**You'll protect me**_

_**No matter what**_

_**Hold me tight with all your might**_

_**Protecting me**_

"Okay, I'm so freakin' close to snapping their necks right now!" I rant, as Gai and Lee hug each other, crying and whatever. Some people think it's adorable.

I think it's sickening.

"They are such total idiots that it's embarassing!" I continue. Neji nods, still listening to me. As always.

_**You listen to me when  
**_

_**I speak out loud **_

I hear the footsteps approaching and quickly scrub my face clean of the tears. I barely managed to get rid of the last salty tear-trail as Neji's brunette head obscures my vision.

"What happened?" he asks, quietly. I shake my head, firmly biting my lip to keep from bursting out in tears again.

"Have I ever mentioned that Shin is a total jackass?" I say. Neji's mouth tweaks up in a smile, then vanishes.

"No. You usually referred to him as..." the Cold Hyuga himself shuddered. "Adorable."

He said it like a curse. Neji turned his head and looked at him, tilting his head to one side.

"He break your heart?" he asked, softly. I nod, and the damn tears spill over and stream down my cheeks. I bury my head in my arms and try to swallow the sobs.

_**You know right **_

_**When my heart's been bent**_

"It's all right, Tenten," Neji murmurs to me. "It's all right."

I only sob harder. And to my own horror, I start hiccuping.

Suddenly, I feel muscular arms wrap around me and lift me up.

_What the hell...?_

"Neji! What are you doing!" I shriek.

"Carrying you," he replies, like it's an everyday thing.

"Um, why?" I ask.

"Because I feel like it."

Ugh. Neji's really sweet, but sometimes, I swear, I could just...argh!

_**You take me off the ground**_

"Another misson, my youthful team!" Gai calls.

Neji and I exchange rolled eyes and grimaces.

"What is it, Gai-sensei?!" Lee calls back. I resist the urge to smack him.

"Another simple guard misson, yet another chance to prove our youthfullness and blossom!"

Oh, the agony.

So, here we are. Stuck guarding a pair of rich parents and their spoiled brat of a boy.

Suddenly, shouts can be heard.

Again with the bandits. I've already got four kunai in my hand, and I watch as Neji visibly tenses. I turn and see that the swarm of bandits are ninja: Lightning Ninja.

I bite my lip, and my gaze flickers from the oncoming attackers to Neji.

Then a demon-wind shuriken flies past my nose and I'm engaged in battle before I can comfort my teammate.

**_Whenever, where ever baby  
_**

I'm fighting at least five shinobi of the Lightning Village. They all look like eager newly-made Chuunin, trying to impress thier Kage by succeeding in their misson to assinate our charges.

One pulls out a particularly fatal-looking Yari sword and swings it at my head.

Oh, shit.

And again, with the blurs of white and gray and blue chakra.

I blink as Neji's Rotation vanishes, after thoroughly knocking all attackers unconcious.

"Again, with the white knight act?" I ask.

He smiles at me, then vanishes.

_**You'll protect me  
**_

_**No matter what  
**_

_**Hold me tight with**_

_**All your might **_

_**You'll never let me go**_

_**You'll protect me  
**_

_**No matter what  
**_

_**Hold me tight with **_

_**All your might **_

I'm fighting alone again, sending wave upon wave of all kinds of weaponry down on the enemy. My Kami, they are endless!

I turn, panting and clutching a wound on my upper arm, to see how Lee, Gai, and Neji are doing.

Gai and Lee have piles of unconcious shinobi at their feet. The rich family are huddled in their exuberent carriage, and the boy is crying. The guards are all battling as well, but none of them as engaged as we, Team Gai, are.

Neji has been _swarmed._ There's at least fifteen Chuunin surronding him, and he seems unable to do his Rotation. I squint and see thick shackles on his ankles and wrists.

And suddenly, I'm whipping out my giant scroll and pricking my thumb. That little drop of blood is enough to summon kunai, senbon, mace, and shuriken of all sorts.

And my weapons are flying at top speed, with deadly accuracy, at the enemies who chained my Neji down.

Woah. Hold the phone. _My_ Neji?

And suddenly, it hits me. _I am in love with Hyuga Neji. _

Yeah, I'm kinda slow on the whole emotions thing, but give me a break, all right?

_**I'll protect you  
**_

_**No matter what  
**_

_**Hold you tight, with all my might**_

That night, I stayed up nursing Neji's rubbed-raw ankles and wrists while Gai and Lee went out on their youthful crap..pft.

"You saved me," Neji said, staring up at me. I choose not to reply, because it happens that he is shirtless and that is just a _little _distracting.

He's Hyuga freakin' Neji, people, come on!

"You saved me," he repeats.

"Yeah, I saved you."

"Why?"

I look down into his crystal eyes, that are actually showing _feeling_ for once.

"Same reason you always save me," I reply, cooly.

Suddenly, I feel those familiar muscular arms shoot up and wrap around me, then pin me to the ground, holding my own arms at my sides.

Neji leans in and brushes my ear with his lips. His oh-so-freaking-soft lips.

"I love you."

**_You, you're always there for me_**

******  
**

_**Day and night you're by my side  
**_

**_Protecting me_**

**_

* * *

_**

So yeah, whaddya think?

Too fluffy? How was it!!! PLEASE TELL ME!!!!

Hee hee, sorry, just got back from vacation and am totally HYPER.

And if Gina is reading this, volleyball IS double-sessions, check the school website, the times are on there, I think.

Till next time.

.::Kiyasha::.

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End file.
